PAL is not pulling out of Bohol

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — The nation's flag carrier, Philippine Airlines, has no plans of pulling out from Tagbilaran City, contrary to allegations that the airline company already stopped offering flights to Bohol through the city airport.

The local ticketing office of PAL here is even looking forward to booking international flights to Bohol clients in two months. Even the flight schedule remains the same, in which PAL Express still serves three flights a day for the Tagbilaran-Manila route.

PAL Express still departs Manila at 5:30 a.m. and arrives Tagbilaran at 6:45 a.m., then at 9:10 a.m. and arrives Tagbilaran at 10:45. The third trip from Manila departs at 2:40 p.m. and arrives Tagbilaran at 4 pm. Flights from Tagbilaran departs at 7:35 a.m. and arrives Manila at 8:50 a.m., then another one leaves at 10:55 a.m. and arrives Manila at 12:10 noon. The third flight to leave Tagbilaran is at 4:30 pm and arrives Manila at 5:45 pm.

Emma Casiñas, manager of PAL ticketing office here, explained that the only change now is the code-share agreement between PAL and PAL Express. "This is even advantageous to passengers, since this allows PAL and PAL Express to offer lower fare rates, she said.

In a code-share agreement, "two or more airlines share the same flight" wherein seats "can be purchased on one airline but is actually operated by a cooperating airline under a different flight number or code," said Casiñas.

Being "the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia," PAL is the least likely to reduce operations, Casiñas said. "It's just that there is realignment where Air Philippines is no longer there. It's now PAL and PAL Express. Air Philippines is now called PAL Express after the rebranding and upgrading by the new management. It will remain PAL Express flight, offering the same brand of services," she said.

Casiñas corrected the impression that PAL would be concentrating on international flights and all domestic flights will be taken over by Air Philippines starting August 1. She clarified that there has been no deal for Air Philippines to take over and that everything about PAL services in Bohol remains the same, "except that the operation side will be managed by PAL Express" based on the realignment between PAL and PAL Express.

"Everything is the same--the same brand of services; the same aircrafts of PAL--the A320. We will continue to handle the flights. It's just that internally, PAL Express will operate the planes, with its crew trained by PAL," she said, adding that PAL and PAL Express will now sell both the flights of PAL out of Tagbilaran and other points in the country using its pipeline but with the same services."  (FREEMAN)